That situation, however, has put Paulus' municipality in a peculiar situation.

While Allen stands to benefit from the distribution center — it would get an estimated $2 million in property taxes for the Northampton Area School District — Hanover stands to get all the traffic. That's an estimated 7,460 vehicle trips a day, including 1,040 tractor-trailers.

But those nearly four miles of roads means Hanover officials are now in the driver's seat on whether the project, which has cleared Allen, will clear its next hurdle.

Hanover will have to sign off on the road widening that will occur on Willowbrook Road, which is a township-owned road, as well as sewer and storm-water upgrades that will occur on Race Street and Airport Road, both of which are state roads.

"[Willowbrook Road] is a township road, so the municipality would have to be willing to accept that [widening]," said Thomas Walter, assistant district traffic and operations manager for the state Department of Transportation.

"It's more maintenance for them, so they have to be willing to take that on. If they don't, if they flat-out said 'No,' I guess the only recourse would be for FedEx to take legal action," he said.

The situation has created confusion in Hanover over how to handle approval requests from FedEx, which have yet to be made.

There is no building, as is typical with land-development requests. But Wednesday, council informally agreed to send the project through its land-development process.

That means the developer will need to file plans with Hanover's Planning Commission. The commission will send a recommendation to the council, which will ultimately approve or deny them.

"There are storm-water retention ponds related to this, and sanitary sewer related to this … so it seems reasonable to consider all of that in one [land-development] plan," township solicitor J. Jackson Eaton III told council members Wednesday. "My recommendation is that's the way to go."

The cost to Hanover

At the heart of Hanover's concerns is the amount of traffic that would be generated by the 1.2 million-square foot facility and the impact it would have on the tiny township, which has 1,560 residents and a $3.1 million budget this year.

Hanover sits southeast of Allen. As vehicles leave the FedEx Ground facility, they would turn left on Willowbrook Road, and in less than a mile, they would enter Hanover.

The trucks would travel south along Willowbrook Road before turning east on Race Street, then south on Airport Road to Route 22.

If the project moves forward, Hanover is likely to see a bigger road maintenance bill, particularly for township-maintained Willowbrook Road, which would need to be widened from two lanes to four. In addition, Race Street would become five lanes from Willowbrook to Airport Road, and a third southbound lane would be added on Airport Road from Race to Route 22.

Paulus said increased traffic likely means more accidents, which add up to a higher cost for the township's fire and rescue services.

"All of Willowbrook, all of Race Street, all of Airport Road and onto [Route] 22, until they hit halfway across the Lehigh River bridge, that's all Hanover Township," Paulus said. "And we're responsible for the safety of [every driver and passenger]."

Hanover also stands to own — and be responsible for maintaining — any new traffic signals along the route, as well as storm-water pipes that run parallel to the roads. Those costs, though, are small compared with the Willowbrook Road maintenance, PennDOT's Walter said.

"If there's an additional [traffic] signal head, is that somewhat of an additional cost to maintain it? Yes," he said. "It's probably incremental, but it's still an increase."

Walter said if Hanover pushes back on the project, it's possible another governmental entity, such as Lehigh County, might agree to take on the responsibility to maintain the traffic signals. It's also possible the developer may agree to maintain any storm-water pipes that would normally fall on Hanover's shoulders.

Will Hanover say no?

The project's developer, New York-based Rockefeller Group, is hoping Hanover officials take a bird's-eye view of the road issues.

Rockefeller Vice President Clark Machemer said while most of the traffic will travel through Hanover, residents shouldn't view those roads solely as theirs.

For example, Machemer said, when a new mall is built, people from all over the area drive the same roads to get there.

"The people coming there to shop aren't solely the residents of that [particular] township," Machemer said. "It's a comprehensive road network that exists."

Officials from Hanover and the Rockefeller Group have said they are ready and willing to negotiate.

"We'll be sitting down and talking with them," Paulus said. "It's part of the process. We'll have to see what we end up with."

Rockefeller's Machemer wouldn't guess as to what Hanover might ask for or what they might be willing to offer in return.

"I can't speculate on what Hanover may or may not consider as impacts to their township," he said. "Once we have the appropriate meetings and understand their concerns, we typically work to try to accommodate those needs."

But if Hanover's concerns aren't addressed, it could stop — or significantly slow down — the process.

Paulus wouldn't comment on how likely such a scenario might be. However, he is concerned if this project goes forward, it's only a matter of time before more warehouses pop up around it and bring even more traffic to the area.

Indeed, the site where FedEx wants to build is being targeted for two other 1 million-square foot warehouses, which if they come to fruition would bring the daily traffic from the three facilities to 14,600 vehicle trips.

"An elected official must look ahead 20-30 years when he makes a decision, and it doesn't seem like people are doing that," Paulus said.

Even if Hanover agrees to the widening of Willowbrook Road, the project, which would be on land now owned by Lehigh Valley International Airport, still must get Federal Aviation Administration approval and a variety of PennDOT permits.